The Good Zoo Guide

[dublinlion]

I found this old book the other day and had a re read through it and found it very interesting. Published in 1992 and authored by John Ironmonger it describes in good depth all the major UK collections. It gives points for enclosures, education and so on, and describes highlights and background for each Zoo 4 to 6 pages each. For example the Chester founder George Mottershead and his early trials, ideals and ideas are well described, as are other Zoo pioneers such as Aspinal, Durrell, Whitley etc.
The interesting thing is at that time the leading Zoos (and authors favourites) were the Aspinal Zoos followed by London/Whipsnade, Chester, Jersey and Twycross and I from memory would probably agree as at around that time I had been to most of the major Zoos at least once.
In the 1990s the Aspinal Zoos were amazing places to visit and they had an extraordinary array of never before seen species all in healthy large groups and of course they had Sumatran Rhinos.
I would be interested to hear other views on this book as I know that there are a lot of changes in the UK Zoo world and some of the described collections such as Glasgow and Windsor have closed and Twycross seems to get bad press etc.

 

[Shorts]

I think the book is great. It's a well written detailed snapshot of the UK zoo scene at a given moment in time and I've spent many enjoyable hours reading and re-reading the reviews and studying the (mammal) species held information -it's fascinating seeing what was held by zoos then and seeing which species have increased, decreased, disappeared and appeared over the intervening (almost) twenty years.

 

[zooman]

Just purchased this on ebay uk look forward to reading it :] Thx for the lead.

 

[dublinlion]

I think the book is great. It's a well written detailed snapshot of the UK zoo scene at a given moment in time and I've spent many enjoyable hours reading and re-reading the reviews and studying the (mammal) species held information -it's fascinating seeing what was held by zoos then and seeing which species have increased, decreased, disappeared and appeared over the intervening (almost) twenty years.

I agree entirely shorts, it is indeed a snapshot of the time. Also it is probably the best book of its kind that ive read and i loved the background info and anecdotes. It was before the meercat, asian otter,celebes ape invasion and not one single red river hog mentioned.
It was also good that he concentrated on the positives without completely ignoring the negatives. After reading it originally in the early
90s, I made a point of visiting several of the most appealing collections, which I enjoyed all the more from having read this book.

@ zooman. I am sure you will enjoy reading this book and I look forward to reading your review.

 

[TARZAN]

I think the book is great. It's a well written detailed snapshot of the UK zoo scene at a given moment in time and I've spent many enjoyable hours reading and re-reading the reviews and studying the (mammal) species held information -it's fascinating seeing what was held by zoos then and seeing which species have increased, decreased, disappeared and appeared over the intervening (almost) twenty years.

Yes it is a good book, I came across my copy at the local library some years ago when it was sold as withdrawn stock, it certainly is a good account of the British zoo scene twenty years ago. Another good book on the same subject is the Penguin Zoo Guide published some years before The Good Zoo Guide. I had a copy of this book for years, unfortunately two years ago I went out the house for ten minutes, when I returned my orange roan cocker spaniel puppy had been to my bookcase and removed two paperback books which were placed underneath, one was the Penguin zoo guide, which was torn to shreds and beyond repair, the other was Molly Badham's celebration of life book, which miraculously came out unscathed, not even a tooth mark!

 

[Shorts]

Another good book on the same subject is the Penguin Zoo Guide published some years before The Good Zoo Guide.

Indeed, I love these snapshot/overview books. A pair from the 1970's which are also good in this respect are Animals On View (Anthony Smith) and Wildlife In Britain (published by the AA, presumably due to loads of people getting their first car in that era and wanting destinations to drive to). They both give nicely summarised histories of some of the zoos and give a good idea of the animals held at the time -it's mind-blowing to see how many zoos were about in the mid-70's and also to read about the number of large mammals that were crammed into Bristol at the time.

More recently, of course, there's the excellent IZES Guide To British Zoos and Aquariums (Tim Brown).

 

[Tim May]

I agree that the books mentioned in earlier posts, "The Good Zoo Guide"; "Animals on View" and "IZES Guide to British Zoos" are all excellent and extremely interesting.

However, without doubt, my favourite book of this type is "British Zoos: A Study of Animals in Captivity" (Geoffrey Schomberg, 1957); published more than half-a-century ago it is obviously of no use as a guide to British zoos today, but it is a fascinating account of the zoos of its era and is well-worth searching for at second-hand bookshops.

 

[Shorts]

However, without doubt, my favourite book of this type is "British Zoos: A Study of Animals in Captivity" (Geoffrey Schombery, 1957); published more than half-a-century ago it is obviously of no use as a guide to British zoos today, but it is a fascinating account of the zoos of its era and is well-worth searching for at second-hand bookshops.

Oh yeah, I forgot that one (which I'm also lucky enough to have). It's really well written and a great read -reading it pushes home the fact that there were so few zoos in the UK at that time and how lucky most of us are to have so many options relatively near to visit nowadays (I suspect mass take up of cars was entwined with the change).

 

[Pertinax]

and also to read about the number of large mammals that were crammed into Bristol at the time.

Up until the 1970's, Bristol had an amazing ABC collection of large animals in its 10 acres- of which about half is taken up by Lawns, the Lake and herbaceous flower borders.

From memory; African & Asian elephant, Black Rhinos, Okapi, Giraffes, Zebra (Grevy then later Damara), Antelope(Oryx,Bushbuck), SeaLions, 3 Great Ape species, Gibbons, up to a dozen larger Monkey species, Lion, Tiger(White & Normal), Jaguar, Leopard (Black & Spotted) Puma, Polar, Brown, Himalayan and Sun Bear (previously Sloth Bear and Wolf also) Camel, Llama,Kangaroos, Axis Deer, and that's apart from the smaller mammals(e.g. Nocturnal House), larger birds like ostrich, cranes, waterfowl etc + comprehensive bird, reptile and fish collections.

 

[Tim Brown]

Hmm..a bit of intrigue here in that i know a Fellow[literally] who claimed to have wrote half [at least] of the Ironmonger book and then fallen out over the project-hence no credit. By the way,thanks for the mention of my effort from a couple of years ago.And finally a bit of a trainspotters moment here but you might like to know that the 1970 Penguin Guide to British zoos actually came out with a different hardback cover-for libraries only- but they do occasionally turn up.